VZCZCXYZ0007
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDK #0195/01 0522101
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 212101Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0053
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 0270
RUEHLC/AMEMBASSY LIBREVILLE 0995
RUEHLI/AMEMBASSY LISBON 0828
RUEHLU/AMEMBASSY LUANDA 0446
RUEHTO/AMEMBASSY MAPUTO 0487

UNCLAS DAKAR 000195 
 
SIPDIS 
 
C O R R E C T E D   C O P Y (CAPTION ADDED) 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, INL, DRL, AF/W, AF/RSA, INR/AA 
ACCRA FOR USAID/WA 
PARIS FOR POL D'ELIA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB KCRM KFRD KWMN PHUM PREF SMIG PU
SUBJECT: GUINEA BISSAU: ANNUAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 
 
REF: A. A) STATE 2731 
 
     ¶B. B) DAKAR 164 
 
 SUMMARY 
------- 
¶1.  (SBU) Guinea-Bissau is a source of children trafficked 
for begging primarily in Senegal.  Muslim Koranic teachers or 
their intermediaries convince parents to send children 
purportedly for a religious education.  Those children are 
routinely beaten and subjected to harsh treatment; often 
their families never hear from them again.  There are no 
statistics or reliable estimates on the scope of the problem. 
 The GOGB has the political will to combat this issue and, 
for the first time, has instituted jail time for parents who 
collude with traffickers.  Police are proactive in stopping 
traffickers and assisting victims. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Children have been required to beg for food and 
money to receive education from Koranic schools for 
generations.  Some fathers and community leaders who send 
children away to learn to read the Koran experienced similar 
situations, although abuse appears to be growing and 
education dwindling.  Public discussion, radio programs, and 
solid NGO efforts, often in conjunction with police and 
government are making it harder for traffickers to operate. 
For the first time last year, villagers worked with local 
officials and NGOs to teach the Koran locally as an 
alternative to sending children away. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) One NGO, "Associaco de Mulher e Crianca" (the 
Association for Women and Children, known as AMIC in 
Portuguese) leads coordination efforts for government, 
police, and civil society in terms of prevention and helping 
returned victims find their families, and holding parents 
accountable to the courts if their children become 
re-trafficked after participating in the reintegration 
program.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Responses are keyed to questions in reftel. 
 
Begin TIP report: 
 
PARA 27.  OVERVIEW OF A COUNTRY'S ACTIVITIES TO ELIMINATE 
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶A.  Guinea-Bissau is a country of origin for trafficked 
children for forced begging, primarily to Senegal and to a 
lesser extent Mali and Guinea.  Children are sent by their 
parents with a teacher, or someone purporting to represent a 
teacher for Koranic studies.  Key source areas are the 
predominantly Muslim areas of Bafata and Gabu in the east. 
Instead of getting an education, children are generally 
forced to beg and remit daily payments of anywhere from 50 
cents to one U.S. dollar plus a kilo of rice to the teacher. 
Failure to meet daily quotas earns severe beatings.  Some 
Koranic schools in Guinea-Bissau also require children to beg 
in the long-standing tradition of these schools, but with 
less abuse and more education than they get abroad. 
 
No studies have been completed on the scope of human 
trafficking in or from Guinea-Bissau, and no reliable 
estimates exist.  The GOGB in cooperation with NGOs, police, 
and international organizations repatriated 131 children from 
Senegal since 2005, including 62 in the first half of 2007, 
but there are many more.  In one case last November, police 
stopped traffickers from moving 52 Bissau-Guinean children 
ages 6-11 into Senegal based on a tip-off in the town of 
Bafata.  One organizer was apprehended and later released 
while the others escaped. 
 
¶B.  Parents of young children are approached by religious 
leaders or intermediaries, usually from Guinea-Bissau, and 
offered the chance to send children for a religious education 
where they would be taught to read the Koran.  Because of 
traditional links between Islamic communities across borders 
and the existence of extended families where distant 
relatives may be considered "uncles," the trafficker is often 
known to the parents.  There are an increasing number of 
Koranic schools in Guinea-Bissau to meet the rising demand 
for education.  A June 2007 UNICEF study documented 617 such 
schools throughout the country to serve as an alternative to 
sending children to Senegal.  Koranic teachers are highly 
 
respected in Muslim society (the majority population in 
target areas) and are able to operate with little 
interference.  Parents receive no compensation for sending 
their children and in many cases, pay for the initial travel. 
Also in some cases, children sent away are not wanted any 
longer, especially in the case of a second marriage where the 
new wife does not want to raise her husband's children with a 
first wife. 
The primary route to Senegal is through the town of Pirada, 
where there are police and migration controls.  Another key 
exit point is the town of Sao Domingos in the west.  Almost 
all traffic is overland, reportedly by foot, taxi or animal 
driven carts to the border.  Non-vehicular traffic can easily 
avoid border outposts by walking on foot trails through the 
bush.  Border guards are aware of the problem and according 
to the leading national NGO on trafficking, AMIC, cooperate 
on interdiction and repatriation.  Yet remoteness, low 
salaries that are sometimes unpaid for months at a time, and 
respect for Koranic teachers makes guards vulnerable to 
bribes. 
 
Living conditions for trafficked children on the streets of 
Senegal's cities can be heartbreaking.  Children who cannot 
raise the daily payment are beaten so severely that they 
often don't return, choosing to sleep in the street rather 
than face punishment.  It is common for families to go years 
without receiving any word from children.  Some children seek 
help from NGOs, neighborhood women whom they adopt as mother 
figures or the Bissau-Guinean Embassy in Dakar.  Others 
simply walk back to Guinea-Bissau.  Many make a go of it on 
their own, living in abandoned buildings and making due with 
begging as a profession.  Some parents seek help from police 
or NGOs to reunite with children, but they are the exception. 
 Again this year, the number of children repatriated and 
reintegrated from Senegal is encouraging.  Repatriations and 
reinsertion in families and schools require significant 
cooperation between NGOs, governments, police and border 
officials, families and schools. 
 
¶C. Political will exists to assist victims and prevent 
trafficking through raising awareness, especially in key 
institutions such as the government's Institute of Women and 
Children, the Department of Justice, the Foreign Ministry, 
and among individuals throughout the police force.  Despite 
the number of agencies that have a role, there is no 
high-level coordinated initiative to fight TIP.  There has 
been a major improvement last year in terms of using jail to 
fight TIP.  While no comprehensive trafficking law exists, 
police, courts, and AMIC cooperated in Gabu to put the fear 
of jail into parents that send children back to the streets 
after they have gone through the reinsertion program.  One 
man who spent 72 hours in jail "got the message" according to 
the head of the regional court.  When outcry about his 
punishment hit the national level President Joao Bernardo 
"Nino" Vieira publicly defended the jail term and pointed out 
the process followed a fair trial. 
 
¶D.  Guinea-Bissau lacks almost everything.  The police 
commissariat in Gabu has one motorcycle for 87 officers.  No 
formal police training has been offered to them since 1996. 
The police station does not have electricity -- but neither 
does the governor's office.  The Government's Institute of 
Women and Children donated one bicycle to the police, but it 
broke and they lack either the parts, know-how, or gumption 
to fix it.  Thanks to AMIC, twelve officers in Gabu receive 
periodic formal training on trafficking in children crimes 
and regular on-the-job training as they are incorporated into 
all of AMIC's local operations with parents and children. 
 
While corruption is likely a factor in the remote towns and 
border areas, AMIC believes there is no high-level corruption 
on this issue, and no one in the Government is getting rich 
off the trafficking of children. 
 
¶E.  The GOGB does not make systematic efforts and does not 
publish assessments of its performance.  A police inspector 
under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior has official 
responsibility for coordinating the government enforcement 
response and cooperation with UNICEF, but these efforts are 
poorly organized.  The Minister of Interior, Baciro Dabo (he 
has since been replaced), traveled to the key source areas in 
Bafata and Gabu last year and spoke publicly and to the 
police officers in his charge about zero tolerance for child 
trafficking. 
 
PARA 28.  INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶A.  There has been no new legislation since the last report. 
There is no law specifically prohibiting trafficking in 
people.  Other laws are currently being used, although they 
are weakly applied. Laws against removal of minors, sexual 
exploitation, abuse, and kidnapping of minors may be used to 
prosecute trafficking cases. Prostitution is illegal, as is 
pimping. 
 
¶B.  There is no trafficking law, but the law against 
kidnapping, which may be used in child trafficking, carries a 
penalty of two to ten years in prison. 
 
¶C.  Guinea-Bissau is not a source or destination country for 
labor abuses and as such has no specific legislation dealing 
with the crime.  When children are exploited for labor, it is 
usually through promises of education that traffickers lure 
them into servitude, not through legitimate offers of 
employment with contracts. 
 
¶D.  The penalty for rape is between one and five years in 
prison. Sex trafficking is not specifically covered under the 
law and in fact does not appear to be a widespread problem in 
Guinea-Bissau. 
 
¶E.  The activities of the prostitute, brothel owner, pimp, 
and customer are all criminalized.  There are no statistics 
on enforcement of this crime. 
 
¶F.  There have been no successful prosecutions of 
traffickers.  Instead, local law enforcement is using the 
laws in place related to parental responsibilities for child 
protection to go after parents who send their children with 
traffickers.  Police are keenly aware of their responsibility 
when it comes to protecting children from traffickers, and 
they often take appropriate action.  In most cases, this 
involves coordinating with NGOs on repatriations.  When these 
children, known as "talibes," go through the repatriation and 
reinsertion process, parents are required to sign a contract 
with the regional court that holds them criminally 
responsible for the safety of their children if they should 
be re-trafficked.  In one case, after AMIC conducted the 
verification process, they found three children missing.  Two 
of the fathers have not yet been located, but one father was 
arrested and spent 72 hours in jail.  He was released when he 
agreed to find his child in Dakar and bring him home. 
 
Men, often former talibes, from the regions of Bafata and 
Gabu are the primary traffickers.  They may be teachers in 
Koranic schools, or they may say they are working on behalf 
of a teacher.  In most cases, they are known to communities 
in which they operate, AMIC, and the police.  Some have been 
photographed by police for the purpose of prevention.  They 
operate in the open, protected by their stature in the Muslim 
community and the fact that politicians in Guinea-Bissau and 
Senegal do not have the temerity to confront them. 
 
¶G.  The Government does not provide any special training on 
trafficking but has said it welcomes any training that 
foreign governments or international organizations can 
provide. 
 
¶H.  Police in Gabu have worked with police in Senegal and 
Guinea (Conakry) in the past, but there were no records of 
joint investigations during the reporting period.  The 
Government does not actively investigate most cases of 
trafficking, but police are proactive in stopping traffickers 
and assisting victims.  A cooperative effort between police, 
courts, and AMIC work together to explain the law to parents 
and carry out enforcement actions when they allow their 
children to be re-trafficked. 
 
¶I.  The Government is not prohibited from extraditing its 
nationals but has no record of being asked to do so for TIP. 
 
¶J.  There is no evidence of government involvement in TIP. 
 
¶K. Not applicable 
¶L. Not applicable 
 
¶M.  There is little tourism in Guinea-Bissau, and there are 
no reports of child sex tourism. 
 
The Government has not ratified ILO Convention 182 concerning 
the prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of 
the worst forms of child labor. 
 
ILO Conventions 29 and 105 on forced or compulsory labor were 
both ratified February 21, 1977. 
 
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the 
Child (CRC) on the sale of children, child prostitution, and 
child pornography was signed on September 8, 2000 and is in 
the ratification process. 
 
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in 
Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing the UN 
Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime was signed 
on December 14, 2000 but not yet ratified. 
 
PARA 29.  PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶A.  A lack of resources keeps the Government from providing 
many services for victims.  Benevolent individuals, some with 
the Government, some with police, and some NGOs, provide most 
other assistance. 
 
¶B. The only care facility expressly for TIP victims is a 
rented house in Gabu.  AMIC pays for the rent through its 
support from international NGOs and the GOGB.  AMIC is 
seeking a permanent solution to this problem and post's TIP 
project proposal (ref B) would support this shelter. 
 
¶C. Most significant funding comes from abroad, including PRM 
support to IOM for a regional repatriation and reinsertion 
program.  The Government continues to contribute about USD 
16,000 to AMIC's annual operating budget.  It cooperates and 
coordinates closely with IOM, UNICEF, Save the Children 
(Dakar), SOS Talibe, and other foreign NGOs. 
 
¶D.  Police in the primary source areas of Gabu and Bafata 
coordinate closely with AMIC to assist victims and locate 
parents. 
 
¶E. Not applicable. 
 
¶F.  Victims are not punished or persecuted in any way by 
anyone other than their traffickers. 
 
¶G.  Nothing impedes victims from seeking justice from their 
traffickers other than a cultural perception that Koranic 
teachers are above the law. 
 
¶H.  See above. 
 
¶I. AMIC provides all training.  Government agencies provide 
full cooperation with AMIC and attend any and all training 
events. 
 
¶J.  As noted above, the Government has no funds to support 
even a modest victim assistance program.  It relies heavily 
on NGO and international donor support not just for TIP 
assistance, but for many basic government functions, 
including payment of civil service salaries. The 
Bissau-Guinean Embassy in Senegal is a leader in the fight 
against trafficking.  It coordinates closely with NGOs in 
Senegal and the Red Cross to identify, assist, and repatriate 
victims.  It uses its operating budget to fund assistance 
efforts and is reimbursed upon justification to the Ministry 
of Foreign Affairs. 
 
¶K. A non-exhaustive list includes the Red Cross, AMIC, RADDHO 
(Dakar), Save the Children (Dakar), UNICEF and IOM. 
 
PARA 30.  PREVENTION 
-------------------- 
 
¶A.  The Government recognizes the trafficking problem and 
combats it on many fronts.  The Government contributes eight 
million CFA francs (CFAF) (about USD 16,000) per year to the 
operating budget of AMIC, the country's strongest advocate in 
fighting trafficking of children. 
 
¶B.  With a number of security concerns in the country, such 
as increased international drug trafficking and the urgent 
need for security sector reform of the bloated, 
violence-prone military, and numerous social problems such as 
a lack of access to adequate education and health care for 
most of its citizens, TIP has not surprisingly been low on 
the priority list.  However, even with these other issues, 
the Government is doing what it can with the few resources it 
has available to it.  The Ministry of Interior has an 
inspector in charge of crimes against children who is 
responsible for coordination on law enforcement of TIP and 
cooperation with UNICEF.  The Institute of Women and Children 
has taken the lead with respect to public awareness and 
marshalling efforts of the government and the international 
community.  The National Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee for 
Women's and Children's Issues continued to try -- but failed 
-- to get TIP on the legislative agenda.  The most effective 
actors continue to be NGOs and international organizations. 
 
AMIC conducts regular awareness efforts on radio stations in 
the Gabu area and through tireless visiting of villages in 
source areas.  Guinea-Bissau's Ambassador to Senegal has also 
contributed to awareness efforts on the radio.  These efforts 
are aimed at parents in Muslim communities, notifying them of 
the dangers of sending their children away for Koranic 
studies.  One program aimed at prevention was the creation of 
evening Koranic studies after the regular school day.  A 
group of religious village elders say the believe this has 
had a positive impact and they know of many children that 
come from nearby villages to study at night so they do not 
have to go as far away as Senegal for the religious education 
they seek. 
 
¶C.  The relationship between GOGB, NGOs, police and border 
officials, and international organizations is excellent. 
 
¶D.  The Government does not systematically monitor its 
borders for TIP, but border guards have been educated by 
AMIC.  Immigration officials described a process they follow 
when they identify a potential trafficker: they detain the 
male adults if they cannot prove they are the fathers, 
contact the police in Gabu, and arrange transportation back 
to police headquarters in Gabu.  Unfortunately, these are 
barely treated as crimes, and traffickers are generally 
released while parents are contacted to pick up their 
children. 
 
As part of a PRM-supported reinsertion program for 
trafficking victims implemented by the International 
Organization for Migration (IOM), AMIC, and Senegalese NGOs, 
the Government assists in repatriating and educating children 
and families to avoid re-trafficking.  This program consists 
of educating parents, getting children in school, and 
follow-up visits to check progress and track children. A 
shelter rented by AMIC houses boys for up to one month while 
their parents are located.  Migration officials at Pirada 
claim they do not let anyone leave the country with a child 
unless the parent is present, due to trafficking concerns. 
Of course the border remains porous, and guards may be 
corrupt or unprofessional. 
 
¶E.  Relevant actors cooperate well and recognize the 
importance of close coordination.  AMIC reports that it gets 
very good cooperation from local police in assisting 
repatriated children and finding parents and local police 
laud the strong work of AMIC to help them monitor villages to 
ensure victims are not re-trafficked.  There are a good 
understanding of issues and updated policies by border police 
and migration officials to stop traffickers from moving 
children out of the country.  AMIC and police work with 
religious and community leaders in the regions of Gabu and 
Bafata.  Even the regional court, which was the biggest gap 
in the past, has started to play an instrumental role in 
making the parents understand that they will be held legally 
accountable if they send their children to beg in a foreign 
country.  This is accomplished by serving as an intermediary 
to explain child protection laws to parents and requiring 
them to sign a contract in which parents of returned victims 
promise not to send their children away again under penalty 
of jail.  AMIC monitors the agreement through visits to kids 
and one man has been jailed for 72 hours under this system. 
 
¶F. There is no national plan of action to combat TIP. 
Agencies involved include the Ministry of Justice, Ministry 
of Interior, and the Institute of Women and Children.  There 
is no task force; so no agency has a clear lead. 
 
¶G. Not applicable 
 
¶H. Not applicable 
 
¶I. Not applicable 
 
¶5.  (U) The TIP officer for Guinea-Bissau, Gregory Holliday, 
who is resident in Dakar, Senegal, can be reached by phone at 
221-33-823-4296 x2415 and by e-mail at hollidaygx@state.gov. 
Embassy TIP officer spent approximately 40 hours preparing 
for this year's TIP report. Embassy Dakar Pol FSN spent about 
20 hours. 
 
Visit Embassy Dakar's classified website at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/af/dakar. 
SMITH